Aquilano.Rimondi / Spring 2013 RTW

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Spring 2013 is shaping up to be a season of sharpness. This is not a time for soft florals or romanticism, at least not yet, nor does it involve any sort of fluid idea of strength. The look is hard and fast: geometric silhouettes, graphic prints, strict lines, strong colors.

And this is what Tommaso Aquilano and Roberto Rimondi’s collection for Aquilano.Rimondi was all about, too. By mashing up references as diverse as Picasso, painted Japanese masks, Venetian harlequins, and Fellini’s La Strada, they ended up with a parade of checkerboard prints mixed with riotous rainbow hues. If at times it felt a little like a circus, well, so be it. As Aquilano said minutes before the show: “Fashion should be fun.” Plus, if you’re wearing a kicky strapless dress with an emerald-green and black bodice in a skewed diamond print and a poufy miniskirt, chances are that fun is exactly what you’re dressing for.

Some of the color combinations evoked seventies YSL, but the supershort Empire-waist silhouette was all Aquilano.Rimondi. These designers have mastered that architectural shape and showed plenty of dresses to prove it. Maybe it was this season’s punchy patterns but, as well executed as the dresses were, they at times felt young. Where the mix of prints and tones worked better was in the straight, midi-length skirt and boxy top combinations. The effect offered more of a balance and still allowed the duo to demonstrate their talent for tailoring and precision.

And really, that talent is why so many of fashion’s major players consider this show a must-see in Milan. Everyone is hungry for the next generation of Italian stars, and these two show great promise. Sure, that’s a lot of pressure, especially in a country so committed to revering the past, but there’s no reason Aquilano and Rimondi are not up to the task. They seem eager, too. “The only way to have people listen to you is if you’re different,” Aquilano said. “Whether they like it or they don’t like it, the important thing is to make a statement.”

True, but here’s the thing. In jumbling together all these references, in jumping from Baroque fifteenth-century art one season to early twentieth-century Picasso the next, we’re left wondering what specifically that statement is. We look forward to next season, when hopefully the pair will present a sharper sense of what they want to say.